Pine Gap (2018) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
A civilian aircraft is targeted.
Someone's shooting missiles over there.
Creech, confirm targets are in possession of missiles with similar specs as the one used in the BM-24 strike.
We cannot confirm these guys shot down that plane.
We've confirmed they've got missiles, they've cracked APEC's comms and the President is in range.
I'm acting on that.
Enough of the cloak-and-dagger.
What the fuck is going on? They can't smell a rat.
I know this isn't what you had planned for your career.
Sometimes we gotta make sacrifices.
GUS: And I'm making one for Australia.
No.
For America.
Both Deputy Chief Sinclair and myself feel it's appropriate that someone from outside takes over as MD for the interim.
Righto.
Let's get down to it, shall we? MOSES: I went through the coding.
It wasn't a glitch.
It was malware.
Malicious software.
Microvirus.
But Pine Gap isn't connected to the internet.
So whoever put the code into the server They work here.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: It's in our mutual interest to stand together.
HILLARY CLINTON: I think Australians need to be for Australians, Americans need to be for Americans.
PAUL KEATING: The sacrament of the alliance.
BARACK OBAMA: Prosperity without freedom is just another form of poverty.
RONALD REAGAN: Trust, but verify.
MOSES: Only a few of us have root access to the mainframe and there have been no unauthorised log-in attempts down there.
It didn't get in that way.
It got uploaded as a small file from one of the base's 1,200 computer terminals.
Unfortunately, unless we get lucky somehow, I'm gonna have to go through the root directory of every single one of them to find out which one it was and how it got on there in the first place.
What's news out here? Just talking politics.
Well, if it's possible to talk and barbecue at least we can feed the kids.
(CHUCKLES) - On it.
- Don't burn them.
That's how they become carcinogenic.
Thanks.
Nothing to anyone.
The United States continues to defend the drone strike on the Bangladeshi rebels, saying intelligence confirmed that this small splinter group claiming to have links with ISIS was responsible for the downing of flight BM-24 in which four American citizens were among the 14 people killed.
It was really shit what they did to you.
And when they just put all this pressure on me to stay.
That's what's really pissed me off.
Yeah, but without a formal review, no assessment of circumstances, and then it all just falls back on us whether we had a failure of intelligence.
Yeah.
Which means I for one have to find out who shot down that plane.
So, how did your date thing go the other night? Oh, God.
OK, so, it was the third time he'd asked me out, so I thought it was only fair I let him know that if we went much further he'd have to be vetted by ASIO.
And then that pretty much just killed any chance of anything, true love, casual sex, Facebook friend.
(CLICKS TONGUE) I'm sorry.
He wasn't really my type anyway.
Hey, uh .
.
come join me for a sec.
I wish Alice had more than three bars.
Come on.
I, um, thought I should introduce myself properly and get to know a few of you one on one.
I'm Jacob Kitto.
- Jasmina Del - Yeah.
Delic.
Yeah.
COMINT.
I remember.
And you're Gus Thompson, yeah? Hey, um .
.
I'm sorry, mate.
I know I'm probably not your favourite person right now.
You been enjoying yourself here so far? I was.
I hear it's a pretty good posting for you guys.
Pays well, free housing, feather in your cap, all that stuff.
It's usually a good move.
Except when it's not, though.
Like now.
And what about you? You've been here, what, three, four weeks? Three and a half, yeah.
Hey, um .
.
I wouldn't have wanted anyone pausing or reassessing that strike either, by the way.
Given that the Shadhinota were armed, the proximity of the VIPs, and what they'd already done to that plane We don't think it was them, actually.
Really? - Are you sure? - We'll know soon.
So, that was the famous Moses, yeah? Idiot savant, Diogenes-like genius.
And you stay here for 10 years, that's what happens? (LAUGHS) I don't think he was ever normal.
Hey, how's Louis settling in at kindergarten? Yeah, he's having a blast.
It's just, uh Yeah, it's just left me a bit on my own is all.
Baby, there are 2,000 Americans living in this town.
It's a community.
Dozens of other families.
Yeah, but not with young children, though, Ethan.
Yes, there are lots of singles and lots of women in their late 50s Who are all loving Alice.
They're happy here.
But all the young moms are back home.
Yeah, but our family's staying together.
I made that mistake the first time round.
What about the young Aussie moms? Sure, we chat, but, you know, if I get too close, they end up on a CIA watch list, which isn't very fair to them.
OK, just start looking, alright? You'll find something to keep your mind active.
- Such as? - You like basketball, join a team.
There's always something happening at the college.
Some public lecture or something.
Start there.
Alice Springs may be small .
.
but there's a lot going on.
Or if you knew the Canberra job was happening I could take the boys.
Belle, this is our home, OK? Canberra could be months away, if at all.
We're here now.
Yeah, well, there's being here and then there's being HERE, Ethan.
Andre has been asking you for weeks to teach him how to play chess, but no, there's always another priority.
Jesus Christ.
It just It gets a little boring when we can't talk about anything happening at your work.
But you knew that when we got married.
When we got married I had MY work, and we lived in a city, a city of 4 million people.
And I had my friends, I had my family.
So, I must have missed the bit about spending the next three years in the middle of the Australian outback.
You see, I thought my job was to carry out a completely objective investigation and conclude that there was no failure of intelligence and that the Shadhinota really did shoot down that plane.
Correct.
Well, it's gonna be hard when we've got a couple of analysts hell-bent on proving they didn't.
Well, you can't ask them not to, that will just ensure that they do.
Fuckin' don't talk to me like I'm straight out of university either.
Look, all that is required is some carefully planned deception.
Second nature for an agent of your experience, I would have thought.
And that, my friend, is a compliment under the circumstances.
No, 'cause I do, I hear that everywhere, Kathleen Sinclair, so generous with her compliments.
Fuckin' - (BOYS SHOUT) - Whoa! - Alright.
- Hey! Hey! I'm thinking of keeping Louis home today because he's running a temperature.
(BOYS SHOUT HAPPILY) Feel his forehead if you don't believe me.
- I believe you.
- It's a shame, really.
I was gonna go to a lecture on Indigenous art, but, you know, if he's not well No, of course.
- Mommy! - Hey! Not inside! Well, uh maybe next time.
Boys! Apparently, we're in the world's capital for lesbian anthropologists.
So, there I was, right? Swipe, swipe, swipe.
I ran out of people.
Should have hung out with us.
The offer was there.
You know, just some nights I just wanna, like, forget about everything.
A mindless hook-up, that's all I wanted.
Hey, where'd you get to? You said you'd join us and you never showed.
Oh.
I just fell asleep.
In front of the TV.
Since when do you watch TV? - What was on? - What? - On the TV? - Nothing.
No, just See you in there, Moses.
JACOB: Hey, let's go by the collection room.
Sure.
Do you remember where it is? Oh, it has changed a bit.
Yeah, everything's interconnected now.
Direct uploads from assessments on the ops floor.
These are the analysis boards for all the regions we have on tasking, and this one is the one for APEC.
And Shadhinota doesn't even rate? Well, here are the comms we logged on foreign terrorist organisations.
So no, nothing from Shadhinota.
But there are thousands from these other FTOs.
There was a lot of anti-American chat from these guys, but nothing suggesting a strike of any sort was being planned and no intel on anyone buying or stealing another vampire from anywhere.
OK.
So, where's all this chat? - Are the transcripts on file? - For everyone on tasking.
The last three months are all in here, on the CR drive.
And you can bring those up on the ops floor? Sure.
Alright.
Well, search through those other groups again using every keyword you can think of.
- I have.
- Well, go further back.
Upload the files from here to me and then get stuff out of storage.
There's gotta be something.
Hey.
We need the calls and emails from all these groups, ISIS, Taliban, al-Qaeda, Shadhinota.
And the search words are here.
- And going back how far? - Four years.
- Four years? - It's authorised.
Alright.
I'll put the results up on the COMINT drive.
Thanks.
RADIO: Tension escalated in South-East Asia overnight when Beijing claimed a Malaysian survey ship, the Ratu, had crossed into Chinese territory in the South China Sea.
President Kerr immediately guaranteed support for Malaysia's right to freedom of navigation.
In return, China condemned America's contempt for sovereign rights, citing the recent American drone strike in Myanmar.
From Canberra, Prime Minister Burke cautioned both sides to show restraint.
SIMON: Jacob, Channel 27 tuned to Chinese Air Command.
We have five J-31 fighters taking off from Hainan.
Where's that Malaysian ship, the Ratu? - Is that where they're headed? - Uh, main screen.
Give me a moment.
Processing image resolution.
- Is the Ratu in Chinese territory? - Which is disputed territory.
Well, they've been saying it's theirs since 1948.
Actually, according to them, it's been theirs since 3,000 BC.
They just went to sleep for 100 years and everyone just took it off them.
They still lost the court case.
Well, these are the Fiery Cross Islands, where China's built a navy base.
I love the way they just take islands.
Uh, Hawaii? And the Ratu is here, 30 k's south of Fiery Cross.
Well inside Chinese-claimed territory.
Right where these Chinese fighters are heading.
Is this an attack plan, comms? - Unclear.
- No weapons armed yet.
13 minutes away at current speed.
Jasmina, those transcripts from the collection room? Should be up on S drive already.
Oh, this is slow.
Come on, come on, wake up.
Come on.
What happened to real-time speed? Don't we have mainframes in here? I thought we had the best gear on earth.
Oh, thank you.
I've got one bird passing over the Hainan airfield.
But the rest of the squadron's still on the apron.
Nothing else scrambling.
DEBORAH: So it's just a show of force? GUS: Probably.
But it's still intimidatory.
It'll have to trigger some sort of active defence for a guy like Kerr.
You know one day this is gonna get really serious, right? What? Like all the other shit hasn't been.
There you are.
MOSES: It's me.
Collection room.
We got it.
There.
You see? So, when Jas pulled 200 COMINT files from here to the ops floor S drive, it took just a few seconds longer than normal.
That was the clue.
The malware got onto our system from this terminal in the collection room.
And it'll just keep migrating.
Yeah, I can see that.
Every time someone downloads anything from S drive, a copy of the malware hitches a ride to their computer, copies everything on that computer and sends it back to here.
I mean, this could spread like wildfire.
But at the moment nothing's left the base? No.
In fact, how can it? We're totally air gapped.
No internet, no USB ports, no wi-fi, nothing.
How'd they get it on this computer in the first place? What they've done is quite clever.
They've snuck into the collections room and reprogrammed the video graphics card in this terminal so it can be a radiofrequency transmitter receiver.
Then they've activated an RF tuner on a smartphone and transferred the malware from the phone to this computer.
- Via phone? - Yep.
That's a thing? You need some tech savvy, but, yeah, that's it's possible.
Of course, we can't bring cell phones inside the classified area, so it had to be transmitted from outside the ops building.
But the transmitters in phones, they're pretty weak, so they had to be close, maybe 200 yards, you know, that sort of radius.
So, definitely an inside job? Yeah.
But 500 people use this room.
Does reprogramming a VGA card automatically create a new system reset point? I salute you.
Any changes to the factory default.
(LAUGHS) Wow.
Wow.
So, yep, here we go.
And the system reset point is now midnight last Wednesday.
Which means the graphics card in here was reprogrammed at some point in the 24 hours after that.
You just have to get your hands on the collection room entry logs for last Wednesday, and it's one of those people.
Go back to the floor.
And forget everything.
I'll handle it from here.
OK.
How are you feeling? Can you walk? No? Marissa Campbell.
Come on, let's have a look at ya.
Have you two been in a fight or something? Nah, it's the bloody dog.
- Dog? - MARISSA: Uh, yeah.
It just, um, went for me, so I took off and I tripped on something and smashed my head on a rock.
- Are you sure? - That's what she said, wasn't it? Come on, let's get you cleaned up.
Tommy Walker.
G'day, Tommy.
Come through.
- Hey, Belle.
- Hey, Paul.
RUDI: Who told you about this malware? Moses.
He certainly earns his keep, our resident genius.
He knows to keep quiet, right? No.
He's giving the whole story to the Alice Springs Gazette.
Come on.
The real question is, what do we do about it? - Try to solve it here quietly? - Or tell truth unto power? Which is the golden rule, but then Kerr is sick of Australia right now.
In his mind it's like the pet cat acting like the master of the house when it's really just a cat.
You know, which is why he'd love an excuse to give it a kick.
Which would almost certainly be counterproductive.
On the other hand, if I don't say anything to anybody and this whole thing blows up, well, that wouldn't end well either.
Certainly not for you.
The Chinese have activated launch countdown on a mid-range ballistic missile from Yulin silo.
The signal we're intercepting is TE1789R on channel 27.
Hey, guys, are you reading this? Channel 43.
What have we got? Second signal? Yeah.
TE2291R logged on channel 43.
JACOB: Does that mean a second missile? No.
2291R also geos to Yulin.
Buckle up, kids.
We got two signals from the one missile.
Probably means it's armed.
- Alert DEFSMAC, Trevor.
- On it.
Deb, where are those J-31 fighters? Uh, three minutes from the Ratu, but peeling away.
They're disengaging.
SIMON: Chinese Air Command have called them back.
(OVER SPEAKER) Launch, DF21.
- Time? - 031612.
Confirming TE2291R is a warhead.
The Chinese have launched an armed ballistic missile.
- What sort? - Yeah that's pretty crazy.
- Is it conventional? - Not in the slightest.
- It can't be nuclear.
- No, it's not that either.
Shit.
- Where is it going? - Trackers indicate south-east.
What? It's also headed for that Malaysian ship? Pretty close.
Got an antenna over the Ratu now.
- Running full spectrum geo scan.
- Oh, man, this is really weird.
What the fuck is going on? - Louis James.
- Yes.
- Oh, hey, Belle.
- Hi, Paul.
- He's got the flu.
- Oh, a wounded soldier.
If you go with Dr Adam, he's got jelly beans.
- Yeah? - Hmm? Give us a call if you have any problems.
- Hey, Paul.
- Joe.
- Am I too early? - No.
I'm late.
Last patient and then we're out of here.
- Skins? - Only on the back nine.
DEBORAH: DF21 has reached apogee.
MOSES: Detonation in two minutes.
1:59, 1:58.
I I'm still trying to read the warhead on this thing.
This is a It's a 900lb something.
It's gonna miss the ship, though.
It's on line but too high.
Pictures on bird two, Gus.
Can you direct that to me next time, please? Put it up.
Sorry.
1:46.
(PHONE RINGS) - Belle? - They think it could be pneumonia.
Pneumonia? Maybe.
They're still checking.
How do you get pneumonia in this heat? I don't know.
They just said that they needed to rule it out, and he's scared, Ethan, and he keeps asking for you.
I'll be there.
MOSES: Eight seconds.
ELOISE: Holding high resolution over the Ratu.
Five, four, three - Payload release.
- GUS: 1,000 feet above the Ratu? Oh, my God! I It's not an explosive.
I-I think I got it.
Because the fusing and firing pattern is exactly the same as the EMP Nevada test September 4, 1986.
What? The Chinese have a 900lb electromagnetic pulse bomb? That is the first time we have seen one that big inside a missile.
Jesus.
Are there any signals from the Ratu? Uh, no energy at all.
Oh, wow.
Every single watt of power is gone.
No phones, radios, radars, lights, nothing.
That's an EMP for ya.
Man, what a weapon.
Kills power, spares people.
So, what? They've completely disabled a whole ship without hurting anyone? Yeah.
Well, Beijing did warn them to back off.
- Well, so what happens now? - That's really up to the President.
But they were in international water.
Not according to China.
So, why can China simply ignore the international law of the sea? - So does America.
- We're defending it.
So ratify it.
Your Congress hasn't agreed to it yet.
- They're bullies, Jas.
- Congress or China? Our Congress doesn't arrest people just for disagreeing with Alright, shut up, children! Let's just remember we're all friends here, alright? - (PHONE RINGS) - Yeah? Alice, this is Denver.
Jacob, what the hell just happened? Yeah (PHONE RINGS) - ETHAN: Hey.
How is he? - Well, it's just a bad cold.
Sorry if I was an alarmist before.
It's just that you know, I don't know how good the doctors are out here, so I know.
That's fine.
Don't worry about it.
Well, there's no need to come out if you haven't left already.
I mean, if you have, maybe the three of us, we can get some lunch.
Ethan? Yeah, I probably oughta stay at the base.
You know, if it's not serious.
(LAUGHS) OK.
Yeah, let's do something special at the weekend.
- Sure.
- Thanks, hon.
I'll see you tonight.
Love ya.
Bye.
Hey.
Mind a third? Ethan! Course not.
Join us.
Joe, Ethan.
Uh, it's Ethan James, right? You work at the base.
That was his wife at the hospital.
With his little one.
Oh, yeah.
It's, uh, Annabelle, isn't it? I've seen her at the court a bit.
You're with Shonguran.
I'm with Shonguran, yeah.
- Still exploring? - No, no.
We've done all the prep work, talked to everybody, made some adjustments.
All the plans are with his mob now.
We just need a tick from the Central Land Council, then we can take it to Canberra, agree a price, and then sign a deal, and then start drilling.
And what are the Arrernte thinking, Paul? Your elders really gonna let him just dig in your land? At least they asked.
(CHUCKLES) Any news on that stuff from data retrieval? Not much.
It turns out in the whole four years we only picked up one piece of talk about a vampire, and that was in the Uruzgan Valley.
Nothing in Sittwe.
- Uruzgan? - Afghanistan.
Way back.
July something, 2014.
- So, we're back at square one.
- Yeah.
You know what? I'm even starting to wonder if we're looking in the wrong place.
You mean the Americans weren't even the target? Well, nothing said they were, we just assumed that.
But if the real target was one of the other passengers Then it wasn't a terrorist attack at all.
So, we should go back and look at the other people on that plane.
Let's go to data management now, see what we can find.
- Jas.
- Yeah? Take a break.
Time doesn't matter now.
You've got four days off.
Enjoy them, and just pick it up when you come back on shift, alright? Moses.
Are you OK? What? When you ran out this morning, I wondered if maybe you weren't feeling well.
Uh, no.
I'm I'm fine.
But thanks.
How are you? Fine.
Let's go, people.
Got a plane to catch.
How long was he here the first time? It was after you got here, right? 10 months.
He came in from ASIS when Sophie Knight went on maternity leave.
It was six years ago now.
Didn't talk to me then either.
JACOB: I've got it covered.
I've just figured out who we can blame.
What? No, trust me.
New plan.
Foolproof.
OK? You can stop worrying.
It'll take a few days for the paperwork to arrive and when everyone's back on shift I can tie a nice bow around the whole thing.
And I'm gonna drag you out and shout you a nice beer, one of those new boutiquey things.
- No, you're not.
- Oh, one beer? Really? That'd kill ya? Hey! I thought you'd gone for the day.
I just met that Zhou fella from Shonguran.
So sorry I couldn't do the intros.
He's a nice guy, though, right? - Maybe.
- (MESSAGE ALERT CHIMES) (KNOCK AT DOOR) The list of everyone who was in the collections room last Wednesday.
You ever heard anybody call Belle by any other name? - No.
- Hmm.
So, our little traitor .
.
is one of these people.
Including Moses? It was A-crew's shift from 7am, so there's 12 of them.
Marilyn and Sam from D-crew later that evening.
- How many were in there on their own? - Six.
They're underlined.
Simon Penny, Deborah Vora, Eloise Chambers, Gus, Jasmina Delic and Moses.
What do you think about Moses? Do we take him off? Or is planting a virus and then telling us about it the kind of complex, double-thinking way his mind works? Well, we shouldn't rule him out.
But at the moment, definitely least likely.
Who was in there the longest? Well .
.
one of them went in and out five times.
Ethan! Ma'am.
I appreciate you coming out here.
It's a long flight for one conversation.
No option this week.
You know about Langley and the Pentagon? I read the daily briefings.
Have we confirmed the point of origin? China, undeniably.
They hacked into both systems using some sort of new technology.
Hence we are temporarily avoiding using our internet and even secure telephone lines.
Which has therefore led to this.
Well, I'm honoured nonetheless.
Oh, don't be, it's actually worse than we put in the briefings.
Essentially, they took all the files of all the American agents at Harrogate and here.
So, Beijing knows everything about all of you now.
And we also heard from an embassy worker in Mumbai that Beijing had a quiet chat with over 100 friends of the party this week.
- Friends? - Businessmen, investors.
Not spies.
Just loyal Chinese with influence abroad.
Disturb and distract, that was the request.
Now, is your problem linked to this? We're not sure.
We believe there's only one insider involved, and we know that person has to be one of only six people.
Well, keep the malware in place until they reveal themselves.
OK, but the longer we let a conspiracy run, the greater the chance they might achieve something.
I wouldn't have thought so.
We're expecting you to identify the perpetrator long before that.
I'm assuming there's no problem accessing phone and bank records.
There is, actually.
Inside Australia that can only happen via ASIO or the Attorney-General's office.
Some of our suspects have very good friends in both those places.
We'd be inviting a tip-off.
And we can't use our own satellites either.
Not inside Australia.
First, it's a breach of our own directives and, second, everyone on the ops floor would see it.
So, Pine Gap has the most technically advanced surveillance equipment in history all right here and you can't use any of it? Not in this situation, no.
Ethan, if there's been a breach at this facility, of all facilities, it is essential that we identify and neutralise the perpetrator.
If we keep it in and you're relying on just me and Rudi, well, I can't guarantee we can stop another Snowden moment.
You'll have to.
- Who else knows at Langley? - Just me and the director.
And there's nothing on paper.
If these motherfuckers do achieve something .
.
you tried to fix this all by yourself.
But if it's handled well, then the President will be fully briefed about your remarkable service and that unfilled job in Canberra could well be in the cards.
- Ethan.
- Ma'am.
Where was Simon going? Uh, just home to wifey and the kids.
- How many does he have? - Four.
Yeah.
I think they all go to private school, which I think is ridiculous.
How does he afford four sets of school fees? Brings his own lunch in, never buys anyone coffee.
Hey, have you kept those calls about vampire missiles in the Uruzgan Valley? Yeah.
Do you want to listen to them? - Sometime, maybe.
- OK.
DEBORAH: Oh, hey.
Um, I've been meaning to ask .
.
what happened to that job as team leader for imagery? Marilyn Johnson got it.
From D-crew? How does that work? It's too small a section to have a lead in every crew.
Which is true, I suppose.
But you've been here longer.
Well, yeah, but Marilyn's great.
Hasn't she got, like, an eye like a hawk or something? Yeah, she's really good.
I can see why she got it.
OK, so, did we forget the wine? Do you want to get stuck into it already? After the week we've had? Are you kidding me? We should have started hours ago.
- Uh, must still be in the trunk.
- OK.
Unique, aren't they? According to the Arrernte legend, the whole range was created by giant caterpillars.
- Really? - (LAUGHS) Oh, my God.
Don't you google anything, ever? I googled you.
If you're looking for bolts, you won't find any here.
You climb too? Huh.
Not here, though.
You're not allowed.
But there's a few good places.
You'll have to show me around sometime.
I've never spoken to Zhou about you or Belle.
We only ever met at community development meetings.
I had to check.
In fact, I didn't know her name was Annabelle.
Is it? I only ever knew her as Belle.
Which is my point.
Everyone calls her Belle.
Her credit card is Belle, Instagram, everything.
You would literally have to see her passport or her birth certificate.
And you think that he has? Yes.
We know the Chinese hacked our security files.
They know every American agent here, and I am sure he's been extensively briefed.
In fact, you should get ASIO to watch him.
Ethan, he's been here for 18 months with no indication he's anything other than a geologist.
He's a Chinese national, Kath.
Friend of the party.
And they have told him about us.
Now, why they picked him, I'm not sure.
But then, I could ask why about a lot of things recently.
Why don't we know who shot down a civilian plane right over the APEC summit? Do you not believe how important the US-Australia alliance is to us? Oh, for heaven's sake.
Do I look like an idiot? Our relationship with America is immensely valuable, and we get a lot more out of it that you get from us, we know that.
But you're 20 fuckin' times bigger than us in every way.
A lot would have to change before this alliance starts costing Australia more than it's worth.
And I, for one, think that that day is a long way off.
Others don't, but I do.
Why do you need convincing? What have we done to make you doubt it? Is it because our leaders are trading insults at the moment? Or is this because we insisted on the new MD? Come on.
- Are you coming? - Ethan.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It doesn't matter where you keep your friends, Rudi.
They're only your friends if you trust them.
Sure.
But remember what Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify.
" And when he said that he was talking about the Soviets agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenal.
And you know how he verified that? Pine Gap.
A shared facility.
Nothing else could do it.
I should've told you yesterday.
I just had to gather my thoughts.
My apologies.
- Who found it? - Moses.
I should've guessed.
Are you sure he's not playing some weird intellectual game? Could be.
But highly unlikely.
He looked pretty shocked.
And to have any hope of neutralising this thing .
.
sensibly, quietly No Canberra.
No Washington.
But at least .
.
we know it's one of them.
Who spent the most time in there? (ALARM CHIMES) (ALARM STOPS) (CAR HORN HONKS OUTSIDE) When I move my knight, it looks like you could take him.
But .
.
when I moved it, my bishop is now attacking your queen.
Ta-da! Now, so, you have to look real close .
.
to see where all the attacks are coming from.
IMMY: Oh, God, Kerr's just such a child.
That's the problem.
He's like a big kid in a sandpit, just trying to knock all the other castles over.
WOMAN: And that's your critique of the Asian pivot? - Yeah, it's my summary.
- OK.
Look, if you wanna read the long version, it'll be on my blog tonight.
And this one is hilarious.
Like, it's fucking fantastic.
It's gonna go viral.
So was the last one, wasn't it? One day it's gonna happen.
Yeah.
Yeah, and one day I'm gonna have sex again.
- (WOMEN LAUGH) - Hi.
It's beautiful, isn't it? It's about a woman's place.
Caught my eye too.
If you like it, you should come inside and see her other works.
Cooee! (VOICE ECHOES) What was that? Oh, man.
So, giant caterpillars, yeah? That's the Dreaming.
They came out of the desert at Snail Ridge, about 50 miles that way, and then went back underground near Alice.
- That's a nice story.
- It's been around for 60,000 years.
Hey, how old were you when you left Serbia? I was nine.
Do you remember much about it? Enough.
What happened in the Uruzgan Valley? - My brother was there.
- Where is he now? Arlington.
Partly.
They brought home as much as they could find, but it was a light coffin.
And my dad was a coalminer, and he married the daughter of a local gun shop owner.
I grew up in Philippi, just outside this little Div II college town called Alderson Broaddus.
One diner, one gas station, covered bridge, that's about it.
My brother went to West Point and I went to Fort Meade.
(SOUTHERN ACCENT) And lil Gus, he just gonna carve his name into history one day, y'all see if he don't.
- That was terrible.
- That was good.
- That was terrible.
- That strawberry's awesome.
And it's much more Alabama than West Virginia.
Coffee at my place? Wow.
Clean bathroom.
I've gotta tidy up before I let you into my place.
No judgement.
I promise.
So, what's with that cutthroat razor? That is so Antiques Roadshow.
- My great-grandfather's.
- Far out.
So, it has meaning, I suppose.
Plus it's good discipline.
You have to concentrate.
Stay calm.
Makes me shiver.
You'd be fine with it.
- I think.
- You reckon? - Sure.
- (BOTH LAUGH) If you ever wanna give it a go, I'd trust you with it.
I'd sit back and be all yours.
That sounds intimate.
Well .
.
the real trick is a light touch and a steady hand.
Then, as long as you don't hurry anything .
.
it feels fantastic.
So, what happens now? Maybe we should tackle a real climb next time we're off work? I'm in.
No, no, the light.
Just turn it back on, please.
- What? - Um I, um .
.
I'm just gonna get going home.
Just this time.
Yeah, alright.
Sorry.
Alright.
- MAN: Morning.
- Hey.
- How you going today? - Good.
How are you? - Good, thanks.
- Great.
Hey.
- Can I get a printout of these? - What are these? They're the phone archives for the non-American passengers on that Burmese plane.
I'm trying to figure out who the real target was.
OK.
I'll print them out now for you.
Shit.
We're wanted in the conference room.
What for? I don't know.
Right, this man is the answer to the riddle of BM-24, Pun Sang.
- The plumber in seat 6B? - Except it's not.
One of our ASIS agents discovered it's really Tiha Meng, a Buddhist policeman accused of raping five Rohingya women.
Everyone thought that he'd gone to prison, but in fact he'd been released with a new identity for snitching on a cellmate.
A couple of weeks ago, the, uh, Rohingya found out about his new identity and his sudden freedom, and they just went mental.
They found some Taliban traitors who sold them a vampire, and boom.
But because the Rohingya are an oppressed minority and not anti-Western terrorists, they weren't part of our threat assessment and they certainly weren't on our tasking.
JASMINA: OK, but hang on.
I just pulled up the phone records of the other passengers on that flight, and there's a text that Lwin Ho sent, the journo in 3A.
She wrote a message to her editor in Hong Kong, saying, "Must meet 'cause got totes explosive news.
"Will call as soon as landed.
" Yeah, she had recognised Tiha Meng getting on the plane.
- Really? You think so? - Absolutely.
Yes.
It was a huge story over there.
But as far as the rest of the world need to know, the plane was shot down by the ISIS cell Shadhinota.
This can just stay with us.
So, there is no intelligence failure from A-crew? That's the finding? No, it was an internal Burmese flight, not in our tasking, and nor were the Rohingya.
Well, good.
Thank you.
In which case Not now.
OK, let's all just move on.
- Yeah.
- I'm sure we've all got work to do.
Sure do.
- Are you gonna talk to her? - I got it.
RUDI: So, Gus, that EMP last week, is that the biggest one we've ever seen? Launched as a warhead, yeah.
- Jas.
- Yeah? - A word? - Come on.
RUDI: POTUS is making a decision tonight, apparently.
- OK, enough of that.
- After you.
Who else knows about that text? - No-one.
- Good.
Forget it.
Are we clear? Rudi? Do you seriously think a dispossessed, starving Rohingyan would spend $50,000 on a surface-to-air missile, kill 14 people, to get one rapist he could have followed and shot when the plane got to Yangon? The real truth is something the Australians are keeping secret.
Think.
When the ISIS story looked like it might come unstuck, they had us bring Jacob in to run the investigation.
Sidelining you.
And when the ISIS story did fall over, they had to go and dig up a Rohingyan story with an ASIS report that just dropped out of nowhere.
Well, dress me up and call me Hillary, but I don't believe it.
Come on, I didn't want to pull the mood down, but she was a Hong Kong journo on her first ever trip to Myanmar.
She wouldn't have recognised a local rapist in witness protection.
That wasn't her explosive news.
- Yes, it was.
- No, it wasn't, Jacob.
That is what happened.
Aren't they one of our strongest allies? Yeah.
But against that, our President has just refused to give their Prime Minister a guarantee that we will protect them, so But we share everything with Australia.
They have access to all our intelligence here.
ETHAN: What if some of that got out? Frequency ranges? Encryption keys? Can you imagine how many American lives would be at risk? We have to know what really happened and why.
And the Australians who just left, Kath, Jasmina, and whoever the hell Jacob Kitto really is, they know.
And don't go jumping to conclusions as to what this means because you will never be fuckin' right.
And this must remain secret, Jas, especially from the Americans.
JACOB: Although .
.
apparently, you are becoming quite friendly with one of them.
Which is OK, because we all need a personal life, we get it.
But we also trust that you will be loyal, because that is the secrecy act that you have signed with us.
RUDI: You two seem to be getting along reasonably well lately.
Sure.
We're friends.
Well, staying friends might suit all of us.
First I'm invaluable, then I'm demoted for political expediency .
.
and now I'm needed again.
Can you, um, head back to ops, please? And Fort Meade will be told A-crew had no failure of intelligence while I was mission director? Eventually.
But the better our support information, the more weight my report will have.
OK.
RUDI: To refresh ourselves on the motives for treason.
- KATH: Money.
- Ideology.
- Compromise.
- And ego.
How are things at home? Perfect.
Or, they will be, once I win lotto.
Has Gus asked you about your family? I told him they were killed by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
'Cause that is the truth, isn't it? I'm with you, by the way, about being at the coalface.
The Australians, they're definitely hiding something.
BELLE: Could it end in war? I really wanna know what you think is gonna happen.
Just still wondering about the Rohingya shooting down that plane.
If it was about something else, aren't you curious what it was? - Informative evening? - On many fronts.
Including Mr Jacob Kitto.
Someone's shooting missiles over there.
Creech, confirm targets are in possession of missiles with similar specs as the one used in the BM-24 strike.
We cannot confirm these guys shot down that plane.
We've confirmed they've got missiles, they've cracked APEC's comms and the President is in range.
I'm acting on that.
Enough of the cloak-and-dagger.
What the fuck is going on? They can't smell a rat.
I know this isn't what you had planned for your career.
Sometimes we gotta make sacrifices.
GUS: And I'm making one for Australia.
No.
For America.
Both Deputy Chief Sinclair and myself feel it's appropriate that someone from outside takes over as MD for the interim.
Righto.
Let's get down to it, shall we? MOSES: I went through the coding.
It wasn't a glitch.
It was malware.
Malicious software.
Microvirus.
But Pine Gap isn't connected to the internet.
So whoever put the code into the server They work here.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: It's in our mutual interest to stand together.
HILLARY CLINTON: I think Australians need to be for Australians, Americans need to be for Americans.
PAUL KEATING: The sacrament of the alliance.
BARACK OBAMA: Prosperity without freedom is just another form of poverty.
RONALD REAGAN: Trust, but verify.
MOSES: Only a few of us have root access to the mainframe and there have been no unauthorised log-in attempts down there.
It didn't get in that way.
It got uploaded as a small file from one of the base's 1,200 computer terminals.
Unfortunately, unless we get lucky somehow, I'm gonna have to go through the root directory of every single one of them to find out which one it was and how it got on there in the first place.
What's news out here? Just talking politics.
Well, if it's possible to talk and barbecue at least we can feed the kids.
(CHUCKLES) - On it.
- Don't burn them.
That's how they become carcinogenic.
Thanks.
Nothing to anyone.
The United States continues to defend the drone strike on the Bangladeshi rebels, saying intelligence confirmed that this small splinter group claiming to have links with ISIS was responsible for the downing of flight BM-24 in which four American citizens were among the 14 people killed.
It was really shit what they did to you.
And when they just put all this pressure on me to stay.
That's what's really pissed me off.
Yeah, but without a formal review, no assessment of circumstances, and then it all just falls back on us whether we had a failure of intelligence.
Yeah.
Which means I for one have to find out who shot down that plane.
So, how did your date thing go the other night? Oh, God.
OK, so, it was the third time he'd asked me out, so I thought it was only fair I let him know that if we went much further he'd have to be vetted by ASIO.
And then that pretty much just killed any chance of anything, true love, casual sex, Facebook friend.
(CLICKS TONGUE) I'm sorry.
He wasn't really my type anyway.
Hey, uh .
.
come join me for a sec.
I wish Alice had more than three bars.
Come on.
I, um, thought I should introduce myself properly and get to know a few of you one on one.
I'm Jacob Kitto.
- Jasmina Del - Yeah.
Delic.
Yeah.
COMINT.
I remember.
And you're Gus Thompson, yeah? Hey, um .
.
I'm sorry, mate.
I know I'm probably not your favourite person right now.
You been enjoying yourself here so far? I was.
I hear it's a pretty good posting for you guys.
Pays well, free housing, feather in your cap, all that stuff.
It's usually a good move.
Except when it's not, though.
Like now.
And what about you? You've been here, what, three, four weeks? Three and a half, yeah.
Hey, um .
.
I wouldn't have wanted anyone pausing or reassessing that strike either, by the way.
Given that the Shadhinota were armed, the proximity of the VIPs, and what they'd already done to that plane We don't think it was them, actually.
Really? - Are you sure? - We'll know soon.
So, that was the famous Moses, yeah? Idiot savant, Diogenes-like genius.
And you stay here for 10 years, that's what happens? (LAUGHS) I don't think he was ever normal.
Hey, how's Louis settling in at kindergarten? Yeah, he's having a blast.
It's just, uh Yeah, it's just left me a bit on my own is all.
Baby, there are 2,000 Americans living in this town.
It's a community.
Dozens of other families.
Yeah, but not with young children, though, Ethan.
Yes, there are lots of singles and lots of women in their late 50s Who are all loving Alice.
They're happy here.
But all the young moms are back home.
Yeah, but our family's staying together.
I made that mistake the first time round.
What about the young Aussie moms? Sure, we chat, but, you know, if I get too close, they end up on a CIA watch list, which isn't very fair to them.
OK, just start looking, alright? You'll find something to keep your mind active.
- Such as? - You like basketball, join a team.
There's always something happening at the college.
Some public lecture or something.
Start there.
Alice Springs may be small .
.
but there's a lot going on.
Or if you knew the Canberra job was happening I could take the boys.
Belle, this is our home, OK? Canberra could be months away, if at all.
We're here now.
Yeah, well, there's being here and then there's being HERE, Ethan.
Andre has been asking you for weeks to teach him how to play chess, but no, there's always another priority.
Jesus Christ.
It just It gets a little boring when we can't talk about anything happening at your work.
But you knew that when we got married.
When we got married I had MY work, and we lived in a city, a city of 4 million people.
And I had my friends, I had my family.
So, I must have missed the bit about spending the next three years in the middle of the Australian outback.
You see, I thought my job was to carry out a completely objective investigation and conclude that there was no failure of intelligence and that the Shadhinota really did shoot down that plane.
Correct.
Well, it's gonna be hard when we've got a couple of analysts hell-bent on proving they didn't.
Well, you can't ask them not to, that will just ensure that they do.
Fuckin' don't talk to me like I'm straight out of university either.
Look, all that is required is some carefully planned deception.
Second nature for an agent of your experience, I would have thought.
And that, my friend, is a compliment under the circumstances.
No, 'cause I do, I hear that everywhere, Kathleen Sinclair, so generous with her compliments.
Fuckin' - (BOYS SHOUT) - Whoa! - Alright.
- Hey! Hey! I'm thinking of keeping Louis home today because he's running a temperature.
(BOYS SHOUT HAPPILY) Feel his forehead if you don't believe me.
- I believe you.
- It's a shame, really.
I was gonna go to a lecture on Indigenous art, but, you know, if he's not well No, of course.
- Mommy! - Hey! Not inside! Well, uh maybe next time.
Boys! Apparently, we're in the world's capital for lesbian anthropologists.
So, there I was, right? Swipe, swipe, swipe.
I ran out of people.
Should have hung out with us.
The offer was there.
You know, just some nights I just wanna, like, forget about everything.
A mindless hook-up, that's all I wanted.
Hey, where'd you get to? You said you'd join us and you never showed.
Oh.
I just fell asleep.
In front of the TV.
Since when do you watch TV? - What was on? - What? - On the TV? - Nothing.
No, just See you in there, Moses.
JACOB: Hey, let's go by the collection room.
Sure.
Do you remember where it is? Oh, it has changed a bit.
Yeah, everything's interconnected now.
Direct uploads from assessments on the ops floor.
These are the analysis boards for all the regions we have on tasking, and this one is the one for APEC.
And Shadhinota doesn't even rate? Well, here are the comms we logged on foreign terrorist organisations.
So no, nothing from Shadhinota.
But there are thousands from these other FTOs.
There was a lot of anti-American chat from these guys, but nothing suggesting a strike of any sort was being planned and no intel on anyone buying or stealing another vampire from anywhere.
OK.
So, where's all this chat? - Are the transcripts on file? - For everyone on tasking.
The last three months are all in here, on the CR drive.
And you can bring those up on the ops floor? Sure.
Alright.
Well, search through those other groups again using every keyword you can think of.
- I have.
- Well, go further back.
Upload the files from here to me and then get stuff out of storage.
There's gotta be something.
Hey.
We need the calls and emails from all these groups, ISIS, Taliban, al-Qaeda, Shadhinota.
And the search words are here.
- And going back how far? - Four years.
- Four years? - It's authorised.
Alright.
I'll put the results up on the COMINT drive.
Thanks.
RADIO: Tension escalated in South-East Asia overnight when Beijing claimed a Malaysian survey ship, the Ratu, had crossed into Chinese territory in the South China Sea.
President Kerr immediately guaranteed support for Malaysia's right to freedom of navigation.
In return, China condemned America's contempt for sovereign rights, citing the recent American drone strike in Myanmar.
From Canberra, Prime Minister Burke cautioned both sides to show restraint.
SIMON: Jacob, Channel 27 tuned to Chinese Air Command.
We have five J-31 fighters taking off from Hainan.
Where's that Malaysian ship, the Ratu? - Is that where they're headed? - Uh, main screen.
Give me a moment.
Processing image resolution.
- Is the Ratu in Chinese territory? - Which is disputed territory.
Well, they've been saying it's theirs since 1948.
Actually, according to them, it's been theirs since 3,000 BC.
They just went to sleep for 100 years and everyone just took it off them.
They still lost the court case.
Well, these are the Fiery Cross Islands, where China's built a navy base.
I love the way they just take islands.
Uh, Hawaii? And the Ratu is here, 30 k's south of Fiery Cross.
Well inside Chinese-claimed territory.
Right where these Chinese fighters are heading.
Is this an attack plan, comms? - Unclear.
- No weapons armed yet.
13 minutes away at current speed.
Jasmina, those transcripts from the collection room? Should be up on S drive already.
Oh, this is slow.
Come on, come on, wake up.
Come on.
What happened to real-time speed? Don't we have mainframes in here? I thought we had the best gear on earth.
Oh, thank you.
I've got one bird passing over the Hainan airfield.
But the rest of the squadron's still on the apron.
Nothing else scrambling.
DEBORAH: So it's just a show of force? GUS: Probably.
But it's still intimidatory.
It'll have to trigger some sort of active defence for a guy like Kerr.
You know one day this is gonna get really serious, right? What? Like all the other shit hasn't been.
There you are.
MOSES: It's me.
Collection room.
We got it.
There.
You see? So, when Jas pulled 200 COMINT files from here to the ops floor S drive, it took just a few seconds longer than normal.
That was the clue.
The malware got onto our system from this terminal in the collection room.
And it'll just keep migrating.
Yeah, I can see that.
Every time someone downloads anything from S drive, a copy of the malware hitches a ride to their computer, copies everything on that computer and sends it back to here.
I mean, this could spread like wildfire.
But at the moment nothing's left the base? No.
In fact, how can it? We're totally air gapped.
No internet, no USB ports, no wi-fi, nothing.
How'd they get it on this computer in the first place? What they've done is quite clever.
They've snuck into the collections room and reprogrammed the video graphics card in this terminal so it can be a radiofrequency transmitter receiver.
Then they've activated an RF tuner on a smartphone and transferred the malware from the phone to this computer.
- Via phone? - Yep.
That's a thing? You need some tech savvy, but, yeah, that's it's possible.
Of course, we can't bring cell phones inside the classified area, so it had to be transmitted from outside the ops building.
But the transmitters in phones, they're pretty weak, so they had to be close, maybe 200 yards, you know, that sort of radius.
So, definitely an inside job? Yeah.
But 500 people use this room.
Does reprogramming a VGA card automatically create a new system reset point? I salute you.
Any changes to the factory default.
(LAUGHS) Wow.
Wow.
So, yep, here we go.
And the system reset point is now midnight last Wednesday.
Which means the graphics card in here was reprogrammed at some point in the 24 hours after that.
You just have to get your hands on the collection room entry logs for last Wednesday, and it's one of those people.
Go back to the floor.
And forget everything.
I'll handle it from here.
OK.
How are you feeling? Can you walk? No? Marissa Campbell.
Come on, let's have a look at ya.
Have you two been in a fight or something? Nah, it's the bloody dog.
- Dog? - MARISSA: Uh, yeah.
It just, um, went for me, so I took off and I tripped on something and smashed my head on a rock.
- Are you sure? - That's what she said, wasn't it? Come on, let's get you cleaned up.
Tommy Walker.
G'day, Tommy.
Come through.
- Hey, Belle.
- Hey, Paul.
RUDI: Who told you about this malware? Moses.
He certainly earns his keep, our resident genius.
He knows to keep quiet, right? No.
He's giving the whole story to the Alice Springs Gazette.
Come on.
The real question is, what do we do about it? - Try to solve it here quietly? - Or tell truth unto power? Which is the golden rule, but then Kerr is sick of Australia right now.
In his mind it's like the pet cat acting like the master of the house when it's really just a cat.
You know, which is why he'd love an excuse to give it a kick.
Which would almost certainly be counterproductive.
On the other hand, if I don't say anything to anybody and this whole thing blows up, well, that wouldn't end well either.
Certainly not for you.
The Chinese have activated launch countdown on a mid-range ballistic missile from Yulin silo.
The signal we're intercepting is TE1789R on channel 27.
Hey, guys, are you reading this? Channel 43.
What have we got? Second signal? Yeah.
TE2291R logged on channel 43.
JACOB: Does that mean a second missile? No.
2291R also geos to Yulin.
Buckle up, kids.
We got two signals from the one missile.
Probably means it's armed.
- Alert DEFSMAC, Trevor.
- On it.
Deb, where are those J-31 fighters? Uh, three minutes from the Ratu, but peeling away.
They're disengaging.
SIMON: Chinese Air Command have called them back.
(OVER SPEAKER) Launch, DF21.
- Time? - 031612.
Confirming TE2291R is a warhead.
The Chinese have launched an armed ballistic missile.
- What sort? - Yeah that's pretty crazy.
- Is it conventional? - Not in the slightest.
- It can't be nuclear.
- No, it's not that either.
Shit.
- Where is it going? - Trackers indicate south-east.
What? It's also headed for that Malaysian ship? Pretty close.
Got an antenna over the Ratu now.
- Running full spectrum geo scan.
- Oh, man, this is really weird.
What the fuck is going on? - Louis James.
- Yes.
- Oh, hey, Belle.
- Hi, Paul.
- He's got the flu.
- Oh, a wounded soldier.
If you go with Dr Adam, he's got jelly beans.
- Yeah? - Hmm? Give us a call if you have any problems.
- Hey, Paul.
- Joe.
- Am I too early? - No.
I'm late.
Last patient and then we're out of here.
- Skins? - Only on the back nine.
DEBORAH: DF21 has reached apogee.
MOSES: Detonation in two minutes.
1:59, 1:58.
I I'm still trying to read the warhead on this thing.
This is a It's a 900lb something.
It's gonna miss the ship, though.
It's on line but too high.
Pictures on bird two, Gus.
Can you direct that to me next time, please? Put it up.
Sorry.
1:46.
(PHONE RINGS) - Belle? - They think it could be pneumonia.
Pneumonia? Maybe.
They're still checking.
How do you get pneumonia in this heat? I don't know.
They just said that they needed to rule it out, and he's scared, Ethan, and he keeps asking for you.
I'll be there.
MOSES: Eight seconds.
ELOISE: Holding high resolution over the Ratu.
Five, four, three - Payload release.
- GUS: 1,000 feet above the Ratu? Oh, my God! I It's not an explosive.
I-I think I got it.
Because the fusing and firing pattern is exactly the same as the EMP Nevada test September 4, 1986.
What? The Chinese have a 900lb electromagnetic pulse bomb? That is the first time we have seen one that big inside a missile.
Jesus.
Are there any signals from the Ratu? Uh, no energy at all.
Oh, wow.
Every single watt of power is gone.
No phones, radios, radars, lights, nothing.
That's an EMP for ya.
Man, what a weapon.
Kills power, spares people.
So, what? They've completely disabled a whole ship without hurting anyone? Yeah.
Well, Beijing did warn them to back off.
- Well, so what happens now? - That's really up to the President.
But they were in international water.
Not according to China.
So, why can China simply ignore the international law of the sea? - So does America.
- We're defending it.
So ratify it.
Your Congress hasn't agreed to it yet.
- They're bullies, Jas.
- Congress or China? Our Congress doesn't arrest people just for disagreeing with Alright, shut up, children! Let's just remember we're all friends here, alright? - (PHONE RINGS) - Yeah? Alice, this is Denver.
Jacob, what the hell just happened? Yeah (PHONE RINGS) - ETHAN: Hey.
How is he? - Well, it's just a bad cold.
Sorry if I was an alarmist before.
It's just that you know, I don't know how good the doctors are out here, so I know.
That's fine.
Don't worry about it.
Well, there's no need to come out if you haven't left already.
I mean, if you have, maybe the three of us, we can get some lunch.
Ethan? Yeah, I probably oughta stay at the base.
You know, if it's not serious.
(LAUGHS) OK.
Yeah, let's do something special at the weekend.
- Sure.
- Thanks, hon.
I'll see you tonight.
Love ya.
Bye.
Hey.
Mind a third? Ethan! Course not.
Join us.
Joe, Ethan.
Uh, it's Ethan James, right? You work at the base.
That was his wife at the hospital.
With his little one.
Oh, yeah.
It's, uh, Annabelle, isn't it? I've seen her at the court a bit.
You're with Shonguran.
I'm with Shonguran, yeah.
- Still exploring? - No, no.
We've done all the prep work, talked to everybody, made some adjustments.
All the plans are with his mob now.
We just need a tick from the Central Land Council, then we can take it to Canberra, agree a price, and then sign a deal, and then start drilling.
And what are the Arrernte thinking, Paul? Your elders really gonna let him just dig in your land? At least they asked.
(CHUCKLES) Any news on that stuff from data retrieval? Not much.
It turns out in the whole four years we only picked up one piece of talk about a vampire, and that was in the Uruzgan Valley.
Nothing in Sittwe.
- Uruzgan? - Afghanistan.
Way back.
July something, 2014.
- So, we're back at square one.
- Yeah.
You know what? I'm even starting to wonder if we're looking in the wrong place.
You mean the Americans weren't even the target? Well, nothing said they were, we just assumed that.
But if the real target was one of the other passengers Then it wasn't a terrorist attack at all.
So, we should go back and look at the other people on that plane.
Let's go to data management now, see what we can find.
- Jas.
- Yeah? Take a break.
Time doesn't matter now.
You've got four days off.
Enjoy them, and just pick it up when you come back on shift, alright? Moses.
Are you OK? What? When you ran out this morning, I wondered if maybe you weren't feeling well.
Uh, no.
I'm I'm fine.
But thanks.
How are you? Fine.
Let's go, people.
Got a plane to catch.
How long was he here the first time? It was after you got here, right? 10 months.
He came in from ASIS when Sophie Knight went on maternity leave.
It was six years ago now.
Didn't talk to me then either.
JACOB: I've got it covered.
I've just figured out who we can blame.
What? No, trust me.
New plan.
Foolproof.
OK? You can stop worrying.
It'll take a few days for the paperwork to arrive and when everyone's back on shift I can tie a nice bow around the whole thing.
And I'm gonna drag you out and shout you a nice beer, one of those new boutiquey things.
- No, you're not.
- Oh, one beer? Really? That'd kill ya? Hey! I thought you'd gone for the day.
I just met that Zhou fella from Shonguran.
So sorry I couldn't do the intros.
He's a nice guy, though, right? - Maybe.
- (MESSAGE ALERT CHIMES) (KNOCK AT DOOR) The list of everyone who was in the collections room last Wednesday.
You ever heard anybody call Belle by any other name? - No.
- Hmm.
So, our little traitor .
.
is one of these people.
Including Moses? It was A-crew's shift from 7am, so there's 12 of them.
Marilyn and Sam from D-crew later that evening.
- How many were in there on their own? - Six.
They're underlined.
Simon Penny, Deborah Vora, Eloise Chambers, Gus, Jasmina Delic and Moses.
What do you think about Moses? Do we take him off? Or is planting a virus and then telling us about it the kind of complex, double-thinking way his mind works? Well, we shouldn't rule him out.
But at the moment, definitely least likely.
Who was in there the longest? Well .
.
one of them went in and out five times.
Ethan! Ma'am.
I appreciate you coming out here.
It's a long flight for one conversation.
No option this week.
You know about Langley and the Pentagon? I read the daily briefings.
Have we confirmed the point of origin? China, undeniably.
They hacked into both systems using some sort of new technology.
Hence we are temporarily avoiding using our internet and even secure telephone lines.
Which has therefore led to this.
Well, I'm honoured nonetheless.
Oh, don't be, it's actually worse than we put in the briefings.
Essentially, they took all the files of all the American agents at Harrogate and here.
So, Beijing knows everything about all of you now.
And we also heard from an embassy worker in Mumbai that Beijing had a quiet chat with over 100 friends of the party this week.
- Friends? - Businessmen, investors.
Not spies.
Just loyal Chinese with influence abroad.
Disturb and distract, that was the request.
Now, is your problem linked to this? We're not sure.
We believe there's only one insider involved, and we know that person has to be one of only six people.
Well, keep the malware in place until they reveal themselves.
OK, but the longer we let a conspiracy run, the greater the chance they might achieve something.
I wouldn't have thought so.
We're expecting you to identify the perpetrator long before that.
I'm assuming there's no problem accessing phone and bank records.
There is, actually.
Inside Australia that can only happen via ASIO or the Attorney-General's office.
Some of our suspects have very good friends in both those places.
We'd be inviting a tip-off.
And we can't use our own satellites either.
Not inside Australia.
First, it's a breach of our own directives and, second, everyone on the ops floor would see it.
So, Pine Gap has the most technically advanced surveillance equipment in history all right here and you can't use any of it? Not in this situation, no.
Ethan, if there's been a breach at this facility, of all facilities, it is essential that we identify and neutralise the perpetrator.
If we keep it in and you're relying on just me and Rudi, well, I can't guarantee we can stop another Snowden moment.
You'll have to.
- Who else knows at Langley? - Just me and the director.
And there's nothing on paper.
If these motherfuckers do achieve something .
.
you tried to fix this all by yourself.
But if it's handled well, then the President will be fully briefed about your remarkable service and that unfilled job in Canberra could well be in the cards.
- Ethan.
- Ma'am.
Where was Simon going? Uh, just home to wifey and the kids.
- How many does he have? - Four.
Yeah.
I think they all go to private school, which I think is ridiculous.
How does he afford four sets of school fees? Brings his own lunch in, never buys anyone coffee.
Hey, have you kept those calls about vampire missiles in the Uruzgan Valley? Yeah.
Do you want to listen to them? - Sometime, maybe.
- OK.
DEBORAH: Oh, hey.
Um, I've been meaning to ask .
.
what happened to that job as team leader for imagery? Marilyn Johnson got it.
From D-crew? How does that work? It's too small a section to have a lead in every crew.
Which is true, I suppose.
But you've been here longer.
Well, yeah, but Marilyn's great.
Hasn't she got, like, an eye like a hawk or something? Yeah, she's really good.
I can see why she got it.
OK, so, did we forget the wine? Do you want to get stuck into it already? After the week we've had? Are you kidding me? We should have started hours ago.
- Uh, must still be in the trunk.
- OK.
Unique, aren't they? According to the Arrernte legend, the whole range was created by giant caterpillars.
- Really? - (LAUGHS) Oh, my God.
Don't you google anything, ever? I googled you.
If you're looking for bolts, you won't find any here.
You climb too? Huh.
Not here, though.
You're not allowed.
But there's a few good places.
You'll have to show me around sometime.
I've never spoken to Zhou about you or Belle.
We only ever met at community development meetings.
I had to check.
In fact, I didn't know her name was Annabelle.
Is it? I only ever knew her as Belle.
Which is my point.
Everyone calls her Belle.
Her credit card is Belle, Instagram, everything.
You would literally have to see her passport or her birth certificate.
And you think that he has? Yes.
We know the Chinese hacked our security files.
They know every American agent here, and I am sure he's been extensively briefed.
In fact, you should get ASIO to watch him.
Ethan, he's been here for 18 months with no indication he's anything other than a geologist.
He's a Chinese national, Kath.
Friend of the party.
And they have told him about us.
Now, why they picked him, I'm not sure.
But then, I could ask why about a lot of things recently.
Why don't we know who shot down a civilian plane right over the APEC summit? Do you not believe how important the US-Australia alliance is to us? Oh, for heaven's sake.
Do I look like an idiot? Our relationship with America is immensely valuable, and we get a lot more out of it that you get from us, we know that.
But you're 20 fuckin' times bigger than us in every way.
A lot would have to change before this alliance starts costing Australia more than it's worth.
And I, for one, think that that day is a long way off.
Others don't, but I do.
Why do you need convincing? What have we done to make you doubt it? Is it because our leaders are trading insults at the moment? Or is this because we insisted on the new MD? Come on.
- Are you coming? - Ethan.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It doesn't matter where you keep your friends, Rudi.
They're only your friends if you trust them.
Sure.
But remember what Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify.
" And when he said that he was talking about the Soviets agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenal.
And you know how he verified that? Pine Gap.
A shared facility.
Nothing else could do it.
I should've told you yesterday.
I just had to gather my thoughts.
My apologies.
- Who found it? - Moses.
I should've guessed.
Are you sure he's not playing some weird intellectual game? Could be.
But highly unlikely.
He looked pretty shocked.
And to have any hope of neutralising this thing .
.
sensibly, quietly No Canberra.
No Washington.
But at least .
.
we know it's one of them.
Who spent the most time in there? (ALARM CHIMES) (ALARM STOPS) (CAR HORN HONKS OUTSIDE) When I move my knight, it looks like you could take him.
But .
.
when I moved it, my bishop is now attacking your queen.
Ta-da! Now, so, you have to look real close .
.
to see where all the attacks are coming from.
IMMY: Oh, God, Kerr's just such a child.
That's the problem.
He's like a big kid in a sandpit, just trying to knock all the other castles over.
WOMAN: And that's your critique of the Asian pivot? - Yeah, it's my summary.
- OK.
Look, if you wanna read the long version, it'll be on my blog tonight.
And this one is hilarious.
Like, it's fucking fantastic.
It's gonna go viral.
So was the last one, wasn't it? One day it's gonna happen.
Yeah.
Yeah, and one day I'm gonna have sex again.
- (WOMEN LAUGH) - Hi.
It's beautiful, isn't it? It's about a woman's place.
Caught my eye too.
If you like it, you should come inside and see her other works.
Cooee! (VOICE ECHOES) What was that? Oh, man.
So, giant caterpillars, yeah? That's the Dreaming.
They came out of the desert at Snail Ridge, about 50 miles that way, and then went back underground near Alice.
- That's a nice story.
- It's been around for 60,000 years.
Hey, how old were you when you left Serbia? I was nine.
Do you remember much about it? Enough.
What happened in the Uruzgan Valley? - My brother was there.
- Where is he now? Arlington.
Partly.
They brought home as much as they could find, but it was a light coffin.
And my dad was a coalminer, and he married the daughter of a local gun shop owner.
I grew up in Philippi, just outside this little Div II college town called Alderson Broaddus.
One diner, one gas station, covered bridge, that's about it.
My brother went to West Point and I went to Fort Meade.
(SOUTHERN ACCENT) And lil Gus, he just gonna carve his name into history one day, y'all see if he don't.
- That was terrible.
- That was good.
- That was terrible.
- That strawberry's awesome.
And it's much more Alabama than West Virginia.
Coffee at my place? Wow.
Clean bathroom.
I've gotta tidy up before I let you into my place.
No judgement.
I promise.
So, what's with that cutthroat razor? That is so Antiques Roadshow.
- My great-grandfather's.
- Far out.
So, it has meaning, I suppose.
Plus it's good discipline.
You have to concentrate.
Stay calm.
Makes me shiver.
You'd be fine with it.
- I think.
- You reckon? - Sure.
- (BOTH LAUGH) If you ever wanna give it a go, I'd trust you with it.
I'd sit back and be all yours.
That sounds intimate.
Well .
.
the real trick is a light touch and a steady hand.
Then, as long as you don't hurry anything .
.
it feels fantastic.
So, what happens now? Maybe we should tackle a real climb next time we're off work? I'm in.
No, no, the light.
Just turn it back on, please.
- What? - Um I, um .
.
I'm just gonna get going home.
Just this time.
Yeah, alright.
Sorry.
Alright.
- MAN: Morning.
- Hey.
- How you going today? - Good.
How are you? - Good, thanks.
- Great.
Hey.
- Can I get a printout of these? - What are these? They're the phone archives for the non-American passengers on that Burmese plane.
I'm trying to figure out who the real target was.
OK.
I'll print them out now for you.
Shit.
We're wanted in the conference room.
What for? I don't know.
Right, this man is the answer to the riddle of BM-24, Pun Sang.
- The plumber in seat 6B? - Except it's not.
One of our ASIS agents discovered it's really Tiha Meng, a Buddhist policeman accused of raping five Rohingya women.
Everyone thought that he'd gone to prison, but in fact he'd been released with a new identity for snitching on a cellmate.
A couple of weeks ago, the, uh, Rohingya found out about his new identity and his sudden freedom, and they just went mental.
They found some Taliban traitors who sold them a vampire, and boom.
But because the Rohingya are an oppressed minority and not anti-Western terrorists, they weren't part of our threat assessment and they certainly weren't on our tasking.
JASMINA: OK, but hang on.
I just pulled up the phone records of the other passengers on that flight, and there's a text that Lwin Ho sent, the journo in 3A.
She wrote a message to her editor in Hong Kong, saying, "Must meet 'cause got totes explosive news.
"Will call as soon as landed.
" Yeah, she had recognised Tiha Meng getting on the plane.
- Really? You think so? - Absolutely.
Yes.
It was a huge story over there.
But as far as the rest of the world need to know, the plane was shot down by the ISIS cell Shadhinota.
This can just stay with us.
So, there is no intelligence failure from A-crew? That's the finding? No, it was an internal Burmese flight, not in our tasking, and nor were the Rohingya.
Well, good.
Thank you.
In which case Not now.
OK, let's all just move on.
- Yeah.
- I'm sure we've all got work to do.
Sure do.
- Are you gonna talk to her? - I got it.
RUDI: So, Gus, that EMP last week, is that the biggest one we've ever seen? Launched as a warhead, yeah.
- Jas.
- Yeah? - A word? - Come on.
RUDI: POTUS is making a decision tonight, apparently.
- OK, enough of that.
- After you.
Who else knows about that text? - No-one.
- Good.
Forget it.
Are we clear? Rudi? Do you seriously think a dispossessed, starving Rohingyan would spend $50,000 on a surface-to-air missile, kill 14 people, to get one rapist he could have followed and shot when the plane got to Yangon? The real truth is something the Australians are keeping secret.
Think.
When the ISIS story looked like it might come unstuck, they had us bring Jacob in to run the investigation.
Sidelining you.
And when the ISIS story did fall over, they had to go and dig up a Rohingyan story with an ASIS report that just dropped out of nowhere.
Well, dress me up and call me Hillary, but I don't believe it.
Come on, I didn't want to pull the mood down, but she was a Hong Kong journo on her first ever trip to Myanmar.
She wouldn't have recognised a local rapist in witness protection.
That wasn't her explosive news.
- Yes, it was.
- No, it wasn't, Jacob.
That is what happened.
Aren't they one of our strongest allies? Yeah.
But against that, our President has just refused to give their Prime Minister a guarantee that we will protect them, so But we share everything with Australia.
They have access to all our intelligence here.
ETHAN: What if some of that got out? Frequency ranges? Encryption keys? Can you imagine how many American lives would be at risk? We have to know what really happened and why.
And the Australians who just left, Kath, Jasmina, and whoever the hell Jacob Kitto really is, they know.
And don't go jumping to conclusions as to what this means because you will never be fuckin' right.
And this must remain secret, Jas, especially from the Americans.
JACOB: Although .
.
apparently, you are becoming quite friendly with one of them.
Which is OK, because we all need a personal life, we get it.
But we also trust that you will be loyal, because that is the secrecy act that you have signed with us.
RUDI: You two seem to be getting along reasonably well lately.
Sure.
We're friends.
Well, staying friends might suit all of us.
First I'm invaluable, then I'm demoted for political expediency .
.
and now I'm needed again.
Can you, um, head back to ops, please? And Fort Meade will be told A-crew had no failure of intelligence while I was mission director? Eventually.
But the better our support information, the more weight my report will have.
OK.
RUDI: To refresh ourselves on the motives for treason.
- KATH: Money.
- Ideology.
- Compromise.
- And ego.
How are things at home? Perfect.
Or, they will be, once I win lotto.
Has Gus asked you about your family? I told him they were killed by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
'Cause that is the truth, isn't it? I'm with you, by the way, about being at the coalface.
The Australians, they're definitely hiding something.
BELLE: Could it end in war? I really wanna know what you think is gonna happen.
Just still wondering about the Rohingya shooting down that plane.
If it was about something else, aren't you curious what it was? - Informative evening? - On many fronts.
Including Mr Jacob Kitto.